- Title
- Lessons from the skin: cutaneous features of familial cancer
- Creator
- Winship, Ingrid M.; Dudding, Tracy E.
- Relation
- Lancet Oncology Vol. 9, Issue 5, p. 462-472
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(08)70126-8
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- As the molecular basis of disease continues to be elucidated, familial cancer syndromes, which consist of a range of neoplastic and non-neoplastic features, are emerging. The usual pathway of referral to a genetics clinic or familial cancer centre is via an oncologist, when high-risk features that suggest a possible hereditary basis for the presenting cancer are recognised. Traditionally, these high-risk features include more than two family members with similar cancers over two or more generations, a young age of onset, and more than one synchronous or metachronous tumour. These features are effective in ascertaining a substantial proportion of families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer due to a BRCA mutation, or the more common bowel-cancer predisposition syndromes, such as hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer and familial adenomatous polyposis. However, there are a range of familial cancer syndromes that are not easily detected and that can remain undiagnosed when history and examination are not extended to include non-malignant features. The identification of cutaneous signs associated with rare familial-cancer syndromes provides individuals and their families with the opportunity to undertake early surveillance for malignant and non-malignant complications that might in time be shown to improve outcomes.
- Subject
- familial cancer syndromes; hereditary diseases; cutaneous signs
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/41261
- Identifier
- uon:4697
- Identifier
- ISSN:1470-2045
- Language
- eng
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